Entertainment

Dell: iPad is Too Expensive, Will Fail in the Enterprise

A senior Dell executive says Apple's iPad is not fit for enterprise customers because of its high price (when you account for peripherals), and will eventually be outpaced by Android tablets.

“Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex,” Andy Lark, Dell’s global head of marketing for large enterprises and public organisations, said to CIO Australia.

As a company that plans to build tablets based on Android and WP7, it's understandable that Dell is bearish on Apple's iPad. Unfortunately, Lark chooses to back his claims with an example that simply doesn't add up.

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1,500 or $1,600; that’s double of what you’re paying. That’s not feasible,” says Lark.

The cheapest iPad 2 model costs $499. A dock is $29, and a wireless keyboard is $69. Case options abound and range from $20 to $100, with Apple's Smart Cover starting at $39. The iPad doesn't natively support a mouse (you can use a hack on a jailbroken iPad to use a Bluetooth mouse with a device, though), but even if it did, you can get a decent wireless mouse for $20.

Add all that up, and you're nowhere near Lark's figures, even if you go with the most expensive iPad model which costs $829. It's fine to believe in the success of Android, but if you're going to dismiss the iPad, using bogus numbers simply won't convince anyone.

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